Hurricane Katrina

Progress and Impact Hurricane Katrina

Florida’s Situation Report this morning notes that seven counties are under evacuation orders. Forty-one shelters currently house 2,000 evacuees. Several counties have announced school closings, and 1.2 million customers have no power. [Florida, 8/26/2005 ]

As Katrina’s storm surge pushes inland, it causes significant damage to a large portion of the levee system along the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MGRO). The storm surge also damages a smaller levee built on the northern portions of neighborhoods in St. Bernard along Florida Avenue, from Arabi to Poydras, according to Col. Richard Wagenaar, the Army Corps’ head of engineers for the New Orleans district. The MRGO, shipping channel built in the early 1960s with very strong local support, had a 17-foot high earthen levee that extended for 10 miles and was the area’s easternmost line of defense against storm surges. Although St. Bernard officials initially strongly supported the construction of the MGRO, more recently, officials had charged that building the waterway destroyed wetlands that absorb the impact of storm surges, making the parish vulnerable. [Times-Picayune, 9/13/2005]

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin tells NBC’s Today Show that his city is “still not out of the woods as it relates to that worst-case scenario.” Already he has received reports that water is overtopping the levee systems, and in the Lower 9th Ward, a pumping station has filed. “So we will have some significant flooding, it’s just a question of how much.”
[MSNBC, 8/29/2005]

Around 9:00 am this morning, the 17th Street Canal levee-floodwall system is breached. However, according to Al Naomi, Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans project manager, the breach occurs in mid- or late-morning after Katrina’s eye has passed east of New Orleans. By that time, north winds have pushed storm surge water in Lake Pontchartrain south against the hurricane levees and into the canals, and then the wind shifts to the west. “As I remember it the worst of the storm had passed when we got word the floodwall had collapsed,” Naomi later says. “It could have been when we were experiencing westerly winds in the aftermath of the storm, which would have been pushing water against it.” Naomi and other Corps officials will later say that they believe that the water in the canal topped the levee on the Orleans Parish side, weakening its structure on the interior side and causing its collapse. Ivor Van Heerden, LSU Hurricane Center expert, however, will say that he does not believe the water was high enough in the lake to top the 14-foot wall and that the pressure caused a “catastrophic structural failure.”
[McQuaid, 9/7/2005Sources:Al Naomi, Ivor Van Heerden]Note - Reports about when this breach occurs vary. For example, Knight Ridder reports that the breach occurred at 3:00 am this morning, and that the breach was reported to the Army Corps of Engineers around 5:00 am. [Knight Ridder, 9/11/2005] Later today, the Army Corps of Engineers will report that the breach occurred “overnight” and that the Industrial Canal breach occurs at this time. [US Army Corps of Engineers, 8/29/2005 Sources:US Army Corps of Engineers] The Boston Globe will report that the breach occurs later this afternoon. [Boston Globe, 9/11/2005] The Chicago Tribune will report that the breach does not occur until August 30. [Chicago Tribune, 9/11/2005] However, it appears more likely that the 17th Street Canal floodwall-levee is breached around this time, and that the early morning breach reported is the breach of the floodwall(s) in the Industrial Canal.

Floodwaters in the Lakeview area of New Orleans are rising above house porches. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]Note - The 17th Street Canal, whose floodwall breaches at some point today, borders Lakeview on the west.

St. Bernard Parish officials are receiving reports of widespread flooding and damage across the parish. More than eight feet of water is reported in Arabi. However, according to Parish Council Chairman Joey DiFatta, other parts of St. Bernard have also been also hit. “Water is inundating everywhere. We have buildings and roofs collapsing. We’re preparing rescue efforts and as soon as the wind subsides we’ll start trying to get people out of St. Bernard.”
[Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005Sources:Joey DiFatta]

Around this time, portions of the New Orleans’ telephone system fails. Remote phone switching stations and wireless phone antennas, or cell sites, are switching to backup battery or generator power, but most of these sources are temporary. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

The Associated Press reports that, according to the National Weather Service, a floodwall has been breached on the Industrial Canal near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line (see (9:00 am) August 29, 2005). Three to eight feed of flooding is possible. [Associated Press, 8/29/2005Sources:National Weather Service] The Associated Press will report on breaches in New Orleans’ levee system at least 15 times before the end of the day, identifying both the Industrial Canal floodwall breach and the 17th Street Canal floodwall-levee breach.

Water has risen beyond the second floor in some houses in Chalmette (St. Bernard’s Parish), according to local officials. People are being forced into their attics to escape the floodwaters. North of Judge Perez Drive, waters have already risen as high as 10 feet. Chalmette High School, a refuge of last resort, has sustained structural damage, and the Civic Auditorium has lost its roof. Floodwall-levee overtopping has caused the extensive flooding in the Lower 9th Board and St. Bernard Parish. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

The National Weather Service’s local weather statement for New Orleans announces that “A significant and life threatening storm surge estimated around 20 feet has occurred with Katrina…causing levees to be overtopped in Orleans and St Bernard parishes. In addition, dangerous battering waves are occurring on top of the storm surge near the coast severe tidal flooding will continue in these areas for several more hours. Significant flooding is also occurring along the Mississippi Gulf Coast over Hancock…Harrison and Jackson counties. Extensive damage due to the wind and storm surge is occurring along the Mississippi coast. A storm surge of 10 to 12 feet has occurred in the southwest part of Lake Pontchartrain affecting the east banks of Jefferson, St Charles, St John the Baptist, and Livingston parishes.”
[Wall Street Journal, 9/12/2005]

The St. Bernard Parish website reports on the breach to the Industrial Canal floodwall, near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line (Tennessee St.), citing the National Weather Service advisory (see 8:14 am August 29, 2005). According to Larry Ingargiola, Director of St. Bernard’s OEP, both parish shelters, housing 300 residents, are suffering significant flooding damage. Chalmette High is losing its roof; many windows are broken at St. Bernard High. “We cannot see the tops of the levees!”
[St. Bernard Parish, 8/29/2005]

According to Dan Packer, President of Entergy, Hurricane Katrina is the worst disaster the company has ever experienced. Nearly 100 percent of the utility’s 700,000 customers have no power. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

Residents in the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish report heavy flooding. Residents are being rescued from rooftops by passing boaters. Reportedly, floodwaters are as high as 12 feet well into Chalmette. Homes on Champagna Drive are nearly under water, and businesses are flooded. The first floor of Chalmette High School, a St. Bernard Parish shelter of last resort, is flooded and residents are reporting that they can see only the rooftops of nearby homes. St. Bernard Parish’s government building reportedly has at least eight to ten feet of water. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

According to Kenner officials, Williams Boulevard is now flooded north of I-10 to just before the lake levee, although Lake Pontchartrain has not overtopped the levees. Officials report that throughout Williams and elsewhere, businesses, homes, and apartments flooded and have significant roof damage. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005] (Kenner is located in Jefferson Parish.)

The St. Bernard Parish website reports: “Communications into the New Orleans/St. Bernard area are little to none due to power and downed telecommunications equipment and massive calls into state.”
[St. Bernard Parish, 8/29/2005]

The St. Bernard Parish website reports that about 150 people have been sighted on rooftops in area with “8-10 feet (perhaps more) of water.”
“Search and Rescue teams are being dispensed to areas hard hit. Presently no deaths have been reported as was sighted in New Orleans.”
[St. Bernard Parish, 8/29/2005]

Ted Jackson, a Times-Picayune photographer, who has waded into the Lower 9th Ward, reports “a scene of utter destruction. The wind still howled, floodwaters covered vehicles in the street and people were clinging to porches and waiting in attics for rescuers who had yet to arrive.”
[Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

The St. Bernard Parish website states that the area around Violet Canal is reportedly under 8 to 12 feet of water. Officials plan on an aerial view to access information in the parish at its earliest opportunity. Officials will block re-entry to communities deemed affected by Katrina until authorities can access the damage.
[St. Bernard Parish, 8/29/2005]

Terry Ebbert, New Orleans Director of Homeland Security, states that he is positive there are casualties resulting from Hurricane Katrina, based on the number of calls to emergency workers from people trapped in trees and attics. According to Ebbert, authorities lost communications with those pleading for help in some cases. “Everybody who had a way or wanted to get out of the way of this storm was able to.”
“For some that didn’t, it was their last night on this earth.” Police are fanning out across the city to assess the damage and rescue people where possible. The city also has 100 boats stationed at Jackson Barracks on the Orleans-St. Bernard parish line. According to Ebbert, the Lower 9th Ward, eastern New Orleans, Treme, and Lakeview near a levee breech seem to be the most devastated. Although damage is extensive, Ebbert says that if the storm had passed just 10 miles west of its track, the city would have been inundated with 25 feet of water. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

Egecat Inc., a risk management firm, reports that Katrina may be the second most-expensive hurricane ever for the insurance industry. Egecat predicts that insurance claims will total between $9 and 16 billion, second only to the $20.8 billion in damages paid out for Hurricane Andrew in 1992. This estimate is lower than Egecat’s morning prediction of $15-$30 billion. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

The Times-Picayune files a report describing New Orleans’ devastated 9th Ward, where the flooding is so extensive that only rooftops poke out from beneath the waters for stretches of square miles. Residents fear for what has happened in the Lower 9th Ward, which edges St. Bernard Parish. “It’s got to be worse in the lower 9,” a city police officer working the scene says. “It always is.”
[Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005] Treme and the city’s 8th and 9th Wards are severely flooded. Eastern New Orleans is inaccessible by car due to the high water on Interstate 10 East. The farther east on Interstates 10 and 610, one goes, “the deeper the water and the danger.” Hurricane Katrina has caused the highway to end at the first exit for Louisa Street. For miles, there are only rooftops, with floodwaters lapping at the eves, visible from I-10. Rows of homes have been swallowed by water. Standing outside on the concrete interstate, in the whipping winds, signs can be spotted that so many of the city’s residents did not evacuate. One man wades up to his chest below, holding an orange water cooler as a buoy. Another single man watches him from the rooftop of a trucking business. Bursts of orange lights can be seen from another house, from the highest window, where at least two people are stranded. Their house nearly swallowed by the flooding, they blink flashlights to attract attention, but are forced to wait. Rescue officials say that boats are coming, but they have not yet arrived. The visions of destruction are overwhelming. There is a yell here and there, a holler from somewhere, but no one in sight. Desperate images fill the neighborhoods: Small children and a woman standing on their front porch as water licks the raised house’s top steps. A black van completely entrenched in the flooding. A drenched dog alone on a rooftop. Household-type items strewn in the dirty floodwater. In one case, rescuers use a boat to get a group of stranded people from their roof to the highway. They leave the group on the overpass, presumably to make other rescues. The interstate has become a kind of eerie desert. The stranded include an elderly woman in a wheelchair and a small barefoot boy. Both are accompanied by their respective families. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

The Army Corp’s Al Naomi calls the state emergency headquarters in Baton Rouge to inform officials of a catastrophic situation in the city. Water from the increasingly large breach in the 17th Street Canal floodwall, which will grow to 200 feet wide, is pouring out, and flooding New Orleans. [McQuaid, 9/7/2005] According to Al Naomi, Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans project manager, the Corps reports the other breaches in the levee system as well: “It was disseminated. It went to our OEP in Baton Rouge, to the state, FEMA, the Corps,” Naomi will later recall. “The people in the field knew it. The people here (in Corps offices) in Louisiana and Mississippi knew it. I don’t know how communication worked in those agencies.”
[McQuaid, 9/7/2005] Yet, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La) will later recall that the mood in the state’s headquarters is not one of panic this afternoon: “We were saying, ‘Thank you, God,’ because the experts were telling the governor it could have been even worse.”
[Newsweek, 9/19/2005Sources:Mary L. Landrieu]

New Orleans Firefighter Nick Felton reports that “downtown has major damage with windows and parts of buildings gone and, of course, major flooding with the water still rising. At this time feeder bands are still coming through the area and they are not responding yet. There are people on their rooftops waiting to be rescued. There have been three breaches of the levee system—in Kenner, at Lakefront along Lake Pontchartrain and west bank. Officials are very concerned about lower New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish. No one has been able to communicate with any [firefighters in St. Bernard Parish].”
[International Association of Fire Fighters, 8/29/2005]

Neighborhoods near the Violet Canal, which runs through St. Bernard’s Parish, have 12 feet of water in their homes, forcing residents to their rooftops, awaiting rescue. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

Around this time, the basement at Lindy Boggs Medical Center begins taking on water, according to George Saucier, the Mid-City hospital’s CEO. According to Saucier, the mini-flood at North Jefferson Davis Parkway and Bienville Street, described as an annoyance, probably was a chain-reaction result of a break in the levee along the 17th Street Canal, which separates Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. Water flowed from the break down Robert E. Lee Boulevard and into the bayou, before surging toward Canal Street, overflowing its banks and heading down North Jefferson Davis Parkway—and into the Mid-City hospital’s basement. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005]

Around this time, Col. Richard P. Wagenaar, the Army Corp’s district commander, files a formal situation report, via e-mail, with the Corps’ national headquarters. What response, if any, the situation report triggers, remains unclear at this time. [Knight Ridder, 9/11/2005]

Mayor Nagin appears on WWLTV to provide viewers with a “status report” on the city: “My heart is heavy. I don’t have any good news to really share. Other than at some point in time the federal government will be coming in here in mass. But, the city is in a state of devastation. Eighty percent of it is under water, as much as 20 feet in some places. There’s an incredible amount of water in the city. Residents are on roofs and trapped in attics, awaiting rescue. Fire, Police, and National Guard personnel are out rescuing those trapped right now. Both airports are under water. Twin spans in New Orleans East are totally destroyed. Three huge boats have run aground. An oil tanker has run aground and is leaking oil. There is a serious [floodwall-levee] break at 17th Street Canal,” and the water continues to rise. Houses have been picked up off their foundation and moved. The Yacht Club has burned; it’s totally destroyed. A barge has hit one of the main structures of High Rise (a bridge/span) and we’re not sure that the High Rise is structurally sound. All of Slidell is under water. Most of Metaraie is under water. “The list just goes on and on.” There are gas leaks throughout the city. It’s not a pretty picture. On the somewhat good news side, many people have survived. Uptown is pretty dry. The French Quarter and Central Business District is dry, but they also have buildings that look like a bazooka was shot through. There is no clear path in or out of the city, whether east or west. I-10 West is still full of water.… The water system has been contaminated except for the Central Business District and Algiers. We have no electricity and they expect electricity to be out about 4-6 weeks. “And the list goes on and on.” Nagin reports that flooding is worst in New Orleans East and in the Lower 9th Ward, but it’s “coming from everywhere.” Nagin is basing his information on a briefing he received, apparently from Marty Evans, President of the Red Cross. Nagin states that he is reading from a briefing provided by a FEMA official (later identified as Marty Bahamonde). “The FEMA guy here is saying that 80 percent of New Orleans is under water and a significant portion of Metaraie and Kenner—everything north of I-10 is under water.” Nagin also reports that St. Bernard is in even worse shape: “There is total devastation in St. Bernard alone.” (WWLTV reporter notes earlier Associated Press report that 40,000 houses in that parish are under water.) [WWLTV 4 (New Orleans), 8/29/2005]

According to Petty Officer Cliff Roberts, at the Coast Guard’s Command Center, the Guard has received about four dozen emergency electronic signals from vessels in Grand Isle, Venice, and elsewhere. “It’s unbelievable.” The Coast Guard is also fielding calls from distressed residents unable to get through on 911 lines, and has received reports of people on rooftops at Villere and Louisa streets and in the 200 block of Almonaster Drive. [Times-Picayune Blog, 8/29/2005Sources:Cliff Roberts]

CNN NewsNight’s Aaron Brown opens this evening’s program by describing New Orleans’ massive flooding: “It is especially bad in the eastern suburbs of New Orleans and the exurbs of New Orleans. And you’ve got a lot of people live out in the developments out there. The lev[ees] that are supposed to keep the city dry, New Orleans city mostly below sea level, failed to hold the storm surges back. No one really believed they would.” During the course of the hour, CNN reporters repeatedly provide harrowing accounts of the flooding and rescue attempts throughout the New Orleans area, as well as the massive devastation in Mississippi. At the end of the two-hour special, Brown closes with the following: “I suppose over the last 15 years, every year it seems like I’ve covered, chased hurricanes in one part of the southeast or another. And I never remember a situation quite like the one we have now, where 12, 18 hours after the center of the hurricane passed, or hit land and passed, we still don’t have an especially clear picture of what has—how devastating the damage is. I think it’s going to be well into tomorrow before we really understand the magnitude of the destruction and the magnitude of the loss of life. And just based on what we’ve learned in the last little bit, my gut says if nothing else, that the numbers are going to be extraordinarily disquieting.”
[CNN, 8/29/2005]

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